Help! I twisted my purse strap

[Bonita]

I've made about 25 purses and this is the first time I've twisted a strap and then felted the purse without seeing my mistake. Does anyone have suggestions for correcting this?

 

The purse is really cute and I'd like to be able to sell it at a craft show in November, but not this way.

[Krakovianka]

I'm trying to picture this...

 

If it's well felted, you can cut without worrying about unraveling. Perhaps you could cut the strap as close to the purse as possible, untwist it, and then sew it together. Or, perhaps you could cut the strap off entirely, and re-attach, perhaps with rings at the ends. If you cut the strap off, leaving about two inches attached to the purse at each side, you could attach rings there by sewing the strap around the ring, then sewing the longer part of the strap around each ring. I'm not explaining this well, but if you use a 1-1-1/2 inch ring, you won't lose much length from the strap.

 

Maybe someone else has some better ideas?

[snugsmontreal]

i agree snip it and untwist it or attach rings. i like the rings idea they are super cute

[smokeyp81]

I vote for cut it also. I have done this before too. I cut mine and just sewed it. I think you could try to needle felt it also. I bought my needles at AC Moore.

[mudpie]

Or, you could just tell everyone it is a Moebius purse strap, LOL.

[Hazlecreek]

You could cut it (seems to be the best ideal) and use an new or old belt buckle. I have seen some really pretty one out there. I hope it works out for you.

[sherryzzz]

I like the idea of cutting the straps on either side to about 2" and attaching rings. If you need the strap section to be longer than the piece you have left, you can always quickly crochet another longer strap and then attach that to the rings. After you cut the strap and attach the rings, you can always run the bag though the washer again so where you sewed the short ends to the bag looks more felted.

[Bonita]

Thanks for the ideas everyone. I hadn't thought of the rings, but I will shop for some in the next few days. I just feel silly because I've never done that before (twisted the strap). I guess there's always a first time and I learned something new----about the rings.

[paperflowers]

I've seen knitters make things that were intentionally twisted. They call it Mobius knitting. In crafts, knows whether you meant to do that .

[trin]

hmmm, I like the idea of the mobius twist as a "feature" rather than a "bug"...

That's just me, the dual threat knitter and crocheter....

 

(I have a knit felted bag that i LOVE because of the twist in the strap puts the bag right against my hip.)

[Bonita]

I ended up cutting the strap and resewing it. I felted the purse again and it looks better than ever. I had stitched a bright pink flower onto it and now the petals have even more of a 3-D effect. I would be happy to show you a picture and will take one when the purse is dry and I have found a button for the closure. I liked the idea of the rings, but the people around here are very conservative and the fact that the purse is black with bright pink and green accents made me feel that I wanted the rest of it to look very average.